WAR 

AND  FAMILY  SOLIDARITY 


BY 

MARY  E.  RICHMOND 


DIRECTOR  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  DEPARTMENT 
RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 


ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE 
DIVISION  ON  THE  FAMILY  OF  THE 
NATIONAL  CONFERENCE  OF  SOCIAL  WORK, 
MAY  21,  1918 


Charity  Organization  Department  of  the 
Russell  Sage  Foundation 
130  East  Twenty-second  Street 
New  York  City 
1918 


Copyright,  1918,  by  the 
National  Conference  of  Social  Work 


39^.3 

T?  41 5'ur 


OQ 


O 

<n£ 


WAR  AND  FAMILY  SOLIDARITY 

The  topic  assigned  to  me  has  such  wide  significance  and  so 
many  aspects  that  it  is  only  fair  to  explain  at  the  very  outset 
within  what  narrow  limits  my  own  share  in  this  discussion  will 
have  to  be  confined.  We  social  workers  could  learn  from  His¬ 
tory  the  fateful  relations  of  war  to  family  life  if  only  we  were 
wise  enough  to  adapt  her  lessons  to  a  world  situation  which  is 
altogether  unprecedented.  Statistics  could  furnish  us  with  valid 
social  data,  too,  if  we  were  able  to  thread  our  way  with  safety 
through  the  maze  of  variables  in  which  any  comparison  of  sta¬ 
tistical  data  immediately  involves  the  student. 

I  found  myself  in  such  a  maze  recently  over  the  simple  discov¬ 
ery  that  marriages  decreased  29  per  cent  in  New  York  City  during 
■2the  first  year  of  the  Civil  War — in  1861,  that  is,  as  compared 
gwith  i860 — and  that  they  increased  8  per  cent  in  the  same  city 
^during  1917  as  compared  with  1916.  How  is  this  marked  differ- 
gence  to  be  accounted  for?  Obviously  here  is  food  for  thought, 
Qbut  the  more  I  look  at  these  figures  the  less  sure  I  am  of  their 
^meaning.  War  was  declared  in  April  in  both  years,  but  here  the 
resemblance  ceases.  We  do  happen  to  know  that  nothing  so 
"promptly  depresses  the  marriage  rate  as  an  industrial  crisis. 
1 There  was  a  panic  in  1857  and  another  smaller  one  in  1915. 
Marriages  are  postponed  at  such  times,  so  that  when  prosperity 
-  returns  there  is  a  marked  advance  in  the  marriage  rate.  The 
'Mrop  in  the  hard  times  of  1915  was  slight,  however, — less  than 
*£4  per  cent — and  many  other  factors  may  have  to  be  reckoned 
-with  in  trying  to  account  for  the  rise  of  1916  over  1915  and  of 
1917  over  both,  especially  when  we  realize  that  the  vital  sta¬ 
tistics  of  1861  show  a  sharper  curve  in  the  opposite  direction. 
As  between  the  two  periods,  a  few  of  the  factors  that  must  be 
taken  into  account,  over  and  above  the  prosperity  one,  are  (1) 
the  draft  of  1917  (there  was  no  draft  in  the  first  year  of  the  Civil 
War),  (2)  the  promise  by  our  government  of  family  allowances 

3 


? 


42142 


(liberal  allowances  too,  when  we  compare  them  with  Civil  War 
policies),  and  (3)  the  effect  of  the  present  European  conflict  upon 
migration  to  this  country.  Just  how  far  each  of  these  enters  in 
it  is  too  early  to  say,  and  it  is  too  early  to  extend  this  compari¬ 
son  of  vital  statistics  in  the  two  periods  to  the  country  as  a  whole, 
for  in  many  states  the  statistics  for  1917  are  not  yet  available. 
The  comparison  would  have  to  be  limited  to  certain  states  in 
any  case,  for  the  reason  that  many  states  had  no  trustworthy 
vital  statistics  in  the  6o’s. 

I  mention  this  one  instance  to  show  how  futile  it  would  be  at 
this  stage  of  the  war  to  attempt  either  summary  or  forecast. 
The  time  for  comprehensive  summaries  is  not  yet.  Of  prophecies 
concerning  what  war  will  do  to  the  family  we  already  have  a  large 
crop,  but  then  the  besetting  sin  of  prophets  is  to  be  sure  that  the 
thing  which  they  wish  to  see  happen  is  going  to  happen. 

Why  not  wait,  therefore,  and  discuss  subjects  that  we  know 
more  about?  The  reason  that  we  do  not  is  obvious  enough. 
Crude  as  our  thinking  has  to  be,  we  consider  war  in  its  relation 
to  family  life  without  delay  because  we  are  deeply  concerned  at 
the  present  moment  with  the  welfare  of  families  in  which  war 
has  wrought  changes.  I  refer,  of  course,  to  the  families  of  our 
men  now  in  service  in  camp,  in  the  danger  zone,  and  at  the  front. 

We  are  in  no  position  to  dogmatize,  but  some  sort  of  a  day- 
to-day  working  theory  we  have  to  have,  because  we  are  acting 
daily.  There  is  more  than  a  possibility  that  this  war  will  in¬ 
fluence  family  life  in  America  profoundly,  and  we  are  anxious 
that  all  our  acts  down  to  the  very  smallest  of  them  may  weigh 
on  the  side  of  family  welfare.  Indeed,  as  I  interpret  the  spirit 
of  Red  Cross  Home  Service,  in  which  so  many  of  you  are  inter¬ 
ested,  it  implies,  does  it  not,  a  desire — not  to  explain  when  too 
late,  but  to  shape  and  control,  while  yet  there  is  time,  the  forces 
of  this  fateful  hour  in  their  relation  to  the  American  home. 

What  is  happening,  and  how  may  we  observe  and  report  in 
order  that  we  may  plan  and  serve?  In  the  earlier  experimental 
stages  of  the  attack  upon  any  new  human  problem,  I  know  no 
better  witnesses  than  the  social  case  workers.  They  have  the 
interest  that  must  precede  observation,  they  have  the  habit  of 
observing,  and  they  are  by  no  means  credulous.  Accordingly, 
following  a  plan  that  I  have  tried  before  and  never  without 
grateful  appreciation  of  the  patience  of  my  correspondents,  I 

4 


have  sought,  in  preparation  for  my  share  in  this  meeting,  the 
aid  of  a  number  of  experienced  social  workers,  selecting  by  pref¬ 
erence  those  now  actively  engaged  in  the  work  of  the  Home 
Service  Sections  of  the  Red  Cross.  Their  evidence,  together 
with  that  of  a  few  Canadian  workers,  must  be  violently  fore¬ 
shortened  in  this  brief  presentation,  but  I  shall  try  to  sum  it  up 
under  the  six  heads  of  (i)  the  unstable  husband  and  father,  (2) 
the  unstable  wife  and  mother,  (3)  the  recently  married,  (4)  the 
unmarried  soldier  or  sailor,  (5)  the  stable  and  responsible  head 
of  a  family,  (6)  what  we  can  do  about  it. 

I  am  deliberately  avoiding  the  observations  and  suggestions 
already  recorded  in  Home  Service  publications,  and  I  warn  you 
that  you  will  find  this  attempt  to  supplement  them  all  too  frag¬ 
mentary.  We  have  only  a  brief  experience  to  record,  but  even 
so  I  must  try  to  avoid  speculation  and  prophecy  by  keeping 
within  that  experience. 

(1)  The  Unstable  Husband  and  Father 

Upon  this  first  sub-topic,  the  conclusions  of  my  correspondents 
in  the  United  States  and  of  those  in  Canada  do  not  agree.  Our 
own  social  workers  are  almost  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  war 
is  doing  the  unstable  head  of  a  family  who  has  enlisted  nothing 
but  good.  Take,  in  illustration,  such  instances  as  these,  of  which 
a  good  many  more  have  been  reported  to  me: 

a.  Wife  and  two  children  practically  deserted  two  years  before 
the  husband  joined  the  army.  Now  his  attitude  is  entirely 
changed.  He  writes  regularly,  feels  financially  responsible  for 
their  care,  is  making  plans  for  his  family’s  future  welfare,  and 
seems  to  have  an  entirely  new  conception  of  the  meaning  and 
value  of  a  home. 

b.  A  case  of  estrangement  that  had  gone  so  far  as  to  lead  to 
a  decree  of  divorce  on  the  ground  of  abuse  and  non-support. 
The  soldier  now  takes  a  new  interest  in  his  three  children;  the 
divorced  wife  evinces  marked  pride  in  her  former  husband. 

It  should  be  added,  however,  that  a  number  of  the  American 
reports  received  dwell  upon  the  improved  conditions  now  assured 
to  families  formerly  neglected  by  the  head  of  the  house,  but  that 
these  reports  fail  to  mention  any  corresponding  improvement  in 
the  absent  man’s  attitude  toward  his  home.  My  Canadian  in¬ 
formants  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  unsatisfactory  family  man 

5 


will,  after  the  war  is  over,  be  more  unsatisfactory  than  ever,  and 
their  experience  of  war  conditions  and  influences  covers  a  longer 
period  than  ours.  Reasons  for  our  hopeful  attitude  toward  this 
group  of  what  we  used  to  call  “married  vagabonds”  are  found 
in  the  disciplined  and  wholesome  life  of  camp,  which  has  so 
obviously  given  many  men  a  new  self-control  and  a  new  physical 
vigor;  the  subtler  influences  of  group  psychology  have  also 
played  their  part,  for  the  prevailing  sentiment  of  an  American 
regiment,  whether  in  training  or  in  active  service,  is  overwhelm¬ 
ingly  a  home  sentiment.  Added  to  this  is  the  softened  feeling 
of  home  folks  for  men  who  have  unexpectedly  risen  to  the  occasion. 
On  the  other  hand,  these  strengthening  influences  are  going  to  be 
offset,  probably,  by  the  nerve-racking  effects  of  life  under  fire 
and  by  the  effects  of  prolonged  absence.  In  this  latter  regard 
our  men  are  at  a  great  disadvantage,  as  compared  with  those  of 
any  of  our  allies  except  the  colonials;  they  will  be  unable  to  see 
their  families  every  few  months  when  “on  leave.” 

But,  either  way,  should  not  Home  Service  take  note  of  the 
changed  conditions  in  this  particular  group  of  families  and,  in 
so  far  as  the  change  is  at  all  favorable — either  for  the  wife  and 
children,  the  absent  man,  or  for  all  of  them — accept  the  chal¬ 
lenge  and  make  advantageous  use  of  each  new  opportunity? 
Our  experience  is  brief,  but  not  so  brief  but  that  we  have  found 
the  new  conditions,  to  an  extent  at  least,  controllable.  Then 
why  not  strive  to  control  them,  why  not  give  each  handicapped 
family  a  new  chance  of  health,  of  self-discipline,  of  self-expression, 
while  the  army  or  the  navy  is  giving  the  absent  head  of  the 
house  his  new  chance  too? 

(2)  The  Unstable  Wife  and  Mother 

We  all  know,  of  course,  that  the  danger  of  family  disintegra¬ 
tion  is  much  greater  when  the  mother,  rather  than  the  father, 
is  the  weak  member.  Where  both  have  shown  marked  weak¬ 
nesses  there  is  always  a  chance  that  the  wife  will  be  able  to  do 
better  away  from  her  husband  than  with  him.  There  are  in¬ 
stances  now  of  women  whose  husbands  are  away,  who  are  better 
able  to  keep  sober  and  better  able  to  do  their  duty  by  their 
children  than  was  the  case  before  the  war.  My  informants 
report,  however,  a  number  of  families  in  which  the  direct  opposite 
has  been  true — in  which  the  wife  and  mother  was  able  to  carry 

6 


her  responsibilities  with  credit  when  her  husband  was  at  home, 
but  went  to  pieces  morally  with  great  suddenness  after  his  de¬ 
parture.  These  sudden  breakdowns  do  not  necessarily  imply 
any  deep-seated  abnormality.  People  equal  to  a  certain  degree 
of  strain  and  worry  often  fail  under  a  heavier  demand;  even 
among  those  of  us  who  pass  for  normal  there  are  marked  differ¬ 
ences  in  this  capacity  to  endure  strain.  One  interesting  account 
comes  from  Canada  of  a  woman  who  temporarily  went  under, 
abandoning  her  children  and  seeking  low  companions,  but  who 
has  entirely  recovered  her  sense  of  moral  values  and  interest  in 
her  family.  Her  recovery  was  aided  by  a  skillful  rallying  of 
better  influences  and  associations.  We  have  to  remember,  there¬ 
fore,  that  these  failures  are  not  all  of  them  irretrievable,  though 
it  is  necessary,  of  course,  to  discover  to  what  extent  actual 
mental  defect  enters  into  the  individual  situation. 

(3)  The  Recently  Married 

A  trainer  of  Home  Service  volunteers  reminds  me  that  not 
all  the  hasty  and  ill-advised  marriages  of  war  time  can  be  charged 
to  the  war.  A  good  proportion  of  the  contracting  parties  would 
have  been  married  “in  haste’*  in  any  case.  The  points  of  view 
of  young  wives  in  some  of  the  Home  Service  families  brought  to 
my  attention  lead  me  to  wonder  whether  the  danger  of  absence 
is  not  greater  for  both  husband  and  wife  in  the  first  year  of  mar¬ 
riage  than  at  almost  any  other  time.  The  new  home  has  no  well 
established  habits  and  traditions.  If  the  woman  left  behind 
faces  the  birth  of  her  first  child  away  from  her  own  people,  she 
may  easily  become  morbid  and  lose  her  courage.  In  fact,  in  the 
case  of  one  young  wife  known  to  me,  who  was  not  away  from 
her  people  at  all  but  living  with  her  mother,  it  soon  became  evi¬ 
dent  that,  with  the  best  intentions  in  the  world,  these  two  women 
were  putting  their  heads  together  and  blaming  every  small  in¬ 
convenience  upon  the  absent  husband.  This  slant  of  theirs 
reached  such  a  pitch  that,  when  the  baby  came,  neither  one 
wanted  to  let  the  father  know  of  its  arrival.  Nothing  in  his 
past  or  present  conduct  seemed  to  justify  their  attitude.  In  all 
probability,  if  the  young  couple  had  spent  their  first  year  of  mar¬ 
ried  life  in  their  own  homeland  the  wife’s  nervous  depression 
could  have  been  eased  by  the  knowledge  that  her  husband  was 
there  and  was  sympathetically  sharing  her  troubles,  no  such 

7 


sense  of  estrangement  could  have  come  to  her.  The  Home  Ser¬ 
vice  worker  of  experience  may  well  help  to  interpret  life  to  a 
young  thing  who  insists  upon  looking  upon  the  dark  side  before 
her  baby  comes ;  taking  to  some  extent,  in  this  service,  the  place 
of  the  wise  woman  relative  who  is  absent,  and  counteracting,  it 
may  be,  the  influence  of  the  unwise  one  who  is  present. 

(4)  The  Unmarried  Soldier  or  Sailor 

History  is  being  made  so  rapidly  in  these  days  that,  before 
the  proceedings  of  this  meeting  are  printed,  my  first  comment 
under  this  fourth  head  may  be  quite  beside  the  mark,  but  I 
cannot  help  expressing  the  hope  that  the  day  may  be  hastened 
when  all  of  our  men  will  be  fighting  under  their  own  American 
commands.  I  urge  this,  of  course,  not  for  military  reasons,  about 
which  I  know  nothing,  but  for  social  reasons.  I  am  entirely 
willing  to  believe  that  the  brave  men  in  the  British  and  French 
armies  are  “just  as  good”  as  our  own  boys,  but  each  nation 
has  a  different  background,  each  needs  a  different  discipline  when 
it  comes  to  such  matters  as  recreation,  social  hygiene,  the  use  of 
alcoholic  drinks,  and  so  on.  The  provisions  made  with  loving 
care  by  the  American  people  for  the  health  and  recreation  of  our 
soldiers  are  necessarily  better  adapted  to  American  needs  than 
any  other  provision,  however  good,  could  be. 

Many  of  our  unmarried  men  at  the  front  look  forward  def¬ 
initely  to  marriage,  of  course,  but  the  alternation  in  army  life 
of  the  two  extremes  of  months  of  dull  routine  followed  by  weeks 
of  feverish  excitement  does  not  tend  to  fit  men  for  a  quiet  life 
in  one  place.  We  have  to  recognize  that  a  long  war  will  mean 
not  only  later  marriages  but,  with  many  men,  an  acquired  taste 
for  adventure  and  change  which  may  turn  them  from  home  life 
altogether.  A  Canadian  woman  writes,  “  My  brother  has  spent 
nearly  three  years  in  France.  Judging  from  his  restlessness  while 
on  leave  last  winter,  I  should  think  any  regular,  humdrum  life 
impossible  for  him  for  a  while.  He  has  changed  from  a  quiet 
boy  with  considerable  power  of  concentration  to  one  who  wished 
to  be  ‘on  the  go’  every  minute,  jumping  from  one  thing  to 
another  continually.  I  have  observed  the  same  change  in  many 
of  my  friends.  Some  of  this  will  wear  off,  of  course,  but  it  can¬ 
not  fail  to  influence  their  relations  to  family  life.” 

Evidence  comes  from  every  quarter  that  the  mothers  are  won- 

8 


derful.  As  one  Home  Service  leader  puts  it,  “In  the  past  a 
mother’s  affection  for  the  boy  just  grown  up  has  often  been 
overshadowed  by  apprehension,  but  now  all  this  is  changed  to 
affection  plus  a  burning  pride.”  So  deep  is  this  affection  that 
we  often  find  it  difficult  now  to  get  any  clear  picture  of  the  back¬ 
ground  of  the  boy  who  has  given  trouble  in  the  past.  According 
to  his  mother,  at  least,  he  has  always  been  good.  Then,  too, 
there  is  the  compensation  that  the  boys  often  become  more  ex¬ 
pressive.  One  mother  said  to  a  visitor,  “I  know  my  boy  so 
much  better  now.  When  he  was  at  home  he  was  one  of  the  quiet 
kind  whose  nose  was  always  in  a  book,  but  now  he  writes  to  me 
every  day  and  he  tells  me  everything.” 

(5)  The  Stable  and  Responsible  Head  of  a  Family 

Social  workers  engaged  in  war  work  are  beginning  to  realize, 
as  never  before,  the  importance  of  fathers.  Edward  S.  Martin 
declares  that  the  boys  who  lacked  a  father’s  care  during  the  Civil 
War  and  became  ne’er-do-wells  later  on  (as  many  of  them  did) 
were  as  much  sacrificed  to  their  country  as  though  they  had  been 
killed  in  battle.  We  must  ask  ourselves  what  were  the  elements 
that  the  absent  father  especially  supplied  in  the  home  life,  and 
strive  to  see  that,  to  some  extent  at  least,  these  elements  are 
made  good. 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  type  of  efficient  person  who  makes 
everyone  round  about  him  inefficient.  It  often  happens  that 
when  the  responsible  head  of  a  family  goes  his  family  have  been 
so  dependent  upon  him  as  scarcely  to  know  where  to  turn. 
There  is  opportunity  here  not  merely  for  service,  but  for  stimu¬ 
lation  of  the  power  of  self-help. 

(6)  What  We  Can  Do  Now 

I  realize  that  each  one  of  these  topics  bristles  with  aspects 
upon  which  I  have  not  even  touched.  The  philosophy  of  family 
life  is  not  my  theme;  I  have  been  hurrying  on,  rather,  to  the  one 
aspect  of  the  subject  upon  which  I  shall  take  time  to  dwell. 
The  outstanding  problem  of  the  Home  Service  worker  during  the 
strenuous  months  immediately  ahead  is  the  problem  of  the  psy¬ 
chology  of  absence  under  conditions  of  unusual  stress  and  strain. 
The  text  books  have  no  division  devoted  to  this  subject — it  is 
practically  an  unexplored  field.  No  group  in  the  community 

9 


has  ever  had  such  an  opportunity  to  study  the  effect  of  absence 
upon  social  relationships  as  you  are  going  to  have  in  the  fulfill¬ 
ment  of  your  daily  task.  By  keeping  your  eyes  and  your  under¬ 
standing  open  you  can  add  not  only  to  the  world’s  sum  of  com¬ 
fort  and  right  adjustment,  but  to  its  sum  of  knowledge  and 
experience  also. 

What  are  a  few  of  the  things  now  practicable  that  might  have 
a  wholesome  effect  upon  the  mental  attitudes  of  the  absent  and 
of  those  who  remain  behind?  I  venture  to  make  seven  sugges¬ 
tions,  some  of  which  may  seem  to  you  trivial,  but  when  we  are 
exploring  a  new  road  we  have  to  begifi  where  we  are. 

a.  One  of  the  temptations  of  Home  Service  is  to  become  so 
interested  in  constructive  and  helpful  plans  for  family  better¬ 
ment  that  the  plans  and  ideals  of  the  absent  head  of  the  family 
may  be  forgotten.  My  first  suggestion  is  that  we  continue  to 
consult  the  absent  husband  and  father  whenever  this  can  be  done 
without  giving  him  undue  worry  and  anxiety  over  small  nagging 
things  from  which  he  can  be  spared.  What  are  his  ideas  about 
this  cheerful  plan  which  opens  a  new  window  of  opportunity? 
What  modifications  would  he  suggest?  Consultation  is  no  new 
idea  to  the  social  worker,  but  its  close  relation  to  the  sense  of 
family  responsibility  needs  to  be  emphasized  anew  at  a  time 
when  so  many  are  discovering  the  possibilities  and  the  satisfac¬ 
tions  of  service. 

b.  A  member  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  during  the  Civil 
War  declared  that  the  two  things  that  did  most  to  keep  the 
soldiers  well  were  music  and  letters  from  home.  As  between  the 
family  and  its  absent  member  everything  should  be  done  to 
keep  all  channels  of  communication  wide  open,  while  making 
that  communication  as  vital  as  possible.  Every  Home  Service 
visitor  should  be  sure  that  letters  are  going  regularly  and  fre¬ 
quently  from  the  homes  she  visits,  and  should  strive  in  tactful 
ways  to  be  sure  that  these  letters  are  stimulating  rather  than 
depressing.  Years  ago  we  learned  the  lesson  in  social  work  that 
the  man  sent  to  the  tuberculosis  sanatorium  often  left  at  the 
wrong  time  and  came  back  home  no  better  in  health,  not  because 
he  was  indifferent  to  the  measures  taken  for  his  cure  but  because 
he  was  intolerably  homesick  and  hungry  for  home  news.  In 
other  words,  the  social  worker  had  neglected,  after  securing  the 
right  medical  care,  to  take  the  additional  step  of  urging  the  home 
folks  to  keep  him  thoroughly  informed  of  home  news  and  as 
cheerful  as  possible  about  conditions  there. 

Then,  as  now,  illiteracy  was  often  a  bar.  A  friend  tells  me 
of  one  Home  Service  family  in  which  a  mother  had  two  sons  at 
the  front.  She  reported  to  the  visitor  that  she  heard  regularly 

10 


from  the  older  one  of  the  two,  but  not  from  the  younger.  Tom 
and  she  had  ‘‘had  words”  just  before  he  left  home.  She  was 
sorry  now  that  they  had  parted  in  anger,  but  the  visitor  failed 
to  find  out  in  this  interview  whether  the  mother  had  ever  written 
and  said  that  she  was  sorry.  When  the  Home  Service  supervisor 
suggested  that  this  be  done,  the  fact  came  out  that  the  mother 
could  not  write.  Here,  and  in  many  similar  situations,  the  Home 
Service  worker  finds  a  definite  opportunity  for  usefulness. 

As  regards  the  tone  of  letters,  a  Home  Service  leader  received 
some  time  ago  a  letter  from  an  officer  in  France  in  which  he 
says  of  his  wife’s  letters,  “Clara  writes  often,  and  her  spirit 
reaches  even  over  here.”  In  telling  this  incident  my  informant 
added,  “  I  was  careful  to  ask  Clara  the  next  time  I  saw  her  about 
her  letters.  She  explained  that  she  was  at  great  pains  to  keep 
all  fretfulness  out  of  them,  but  was  equally  careful  to  tell  just 
what  was  happening.”  A  mother,  whose  immediate  family  con¬ 
sists  of  two  sons  who  are  now  at  the  front,  thought  seriously  of 
closing  her  comfortable  home  in  order  to  devote  an  even  larger 
share  of  her  time  to  war  service.  The  boys  protested,  however, 
writing  from  France,  “Whatever  you  do,  Mother,  be  sure  to 
keep  the  home  together.  It  steadies  us  to  know  that  it  is  there 
and  going  on  as  usual.  Be  sure  to  tell  us  about  the  dogs  and 
don’t  forget  to  let  us  know  when  the  flowers  come  up  in  the 
garden.”  Here  is  surely  a  strong  argument  for  keeping  families 
together  and  the  home  life  as  near  to  its  normal  standard  as 
possible.  In  a  rocking  world  the  home  becomes  the  one  fixed 
center  of  the  soldier’s  hopes  and  memories.  The  homeliest 
things — the  dogs,  the  flowers,  the  little  daily  happenings — are 
the  best  things  to  write  about.  Unimportant  in  themselves, 
they  assume  vast  importance  as  symbols  of  the  unexpressed  and 
inexpressible. 

c.  The  exigencies  of  ocean  travel  under  present  conditions 
have  barred  out  parcels  from  home.  As  conditions  change  for  the 
better,  this  embargo  will  be  lifted,  let  us  hope,  for  nothing  carries 
more  definitely  the  genuine  home  flavor  than  a  parcel  wrapped 
at  home  (however  badly  wrapped),  planned  at  home,  and  packed 
with  loving  care  and  thought.  Then  too  we  may  hope  that  local 
newspapers  will  go  freely  to  the  man  who  has  not  ceased  to  be 
a  citizen  and  an  active  participant,  in  thought  at  least,  in  the 
affairs  of  his  home  community. 

d.  One  colleague  of  mine  suggests  that  Home  Service  visitors 
“work  the  camera  for  all  it  is  worth.”  Here  is  a  powerful  aid  in 
making  absent  ones  seem  present.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
not  only  is  it  well  to  take  frequent  snapshots  of  all  the  members 
of  the  family  in  their  everyday  occupations  and  surroundings, 
but  that  each  photograph  be  carefully  labeled  and  dated  on  the 
back. 

e.  We  are  arrived  at  a  time  in  the  world’s  history  when  much 

11 


should  be  made  of  festivals.  The  nation  is  turning  the  great 
national  holidays  to  account  as  an  effective  way  of  giving  ex¬ 
pression  and  point  to  public  feeling.  Similarly,  the  home  fes¬ 
tivals  and  anniversaries ,  such  as  birthdays,  wedding  days,  etc., 
should  be  emphasized  more  than  ever,  should  be  prepared  for 
in  advance,  and  celebrated  at  home  and  in  the  trenches  sim¬ 
ultaneously. 

f.  The  development  of  new  interests  in  common  has  been 
definitely  aided  by  the  organization  of  clubs  of  wives  and  mothers 
planned  on  a  democratic  basis.  Exchange  of  the  news  from  the 
front  which  comes  through  letters  helps  unquestionably  to  stimu¬ 
late  correspondence,  and  the  organization  of  classes  in  war 
geography,  in  current  European  history,  or  in  international 
politics  multiplies  points  of  contact  and  increases  continuity  of 
interest  as  between  the  absent  and  the  wives  and  young  people 
at  home.  Unorganized  and  empty  leisure  is  one  of  the  greatest 
dangers  which  assail  the  stay-at-homes  among  rich  and  poor 
alike.  There  should  be  no  such  thing  as  empty  leisure  in  these 
strenuous  times. 

g.  Proof  is  not  lacking  that  there  is  plenty  of  courage  in  our 
army  and  navy.  As  the  months  of  war  ahead  of  us  measure  a 
year,  or  a  series  of  years,  the  supreme  need  for  courage  is  going 
to  be  in  our  civilian  population.  Home  Service  has  found  no 
lack  of  things  to  do.  Its  workers  are  taking  up  the  new  tasks 
with  energy  and  enthusiasm.  In  the  sheer  joy  of  the  doing  they 
must  not  overlook  the  need  of  sharing.  In  fact,  in  all  their  con¬ 
tacts  with  the  wives  and  mothers,  boys  and  girls,  of  our  soldiers 
and  sailors,  let  them  remember  that  courage  stays  and  courage 
grows  not  by  shifting  family  burdens  to  those  outside  the  family 
circle  but  by  the  kind  of  stimulating  help  which  makes  home 
responsibility  bearable.  In  other  words,  Home  Service,  like 
every  other  form  of  service  which  is  genuine  and  social,  must  be 
a  partnership  affair  in  which  the  families  visited  and  aided  are 
to  be  helped  to  find  their  part  and  play  it  gallantly.  Family 
solidarity  demands  this — that  our  contacts  shall  release  energy 
in  helpful  directions  and  aid  each  individual  who  is  a  member 
of  a  family  to  do  his  part  in  the  kind  of  self-controlled,  self¬ 
helpful  living  without  which  this  war  cannot  be  won. 

This  ends  my  list  of  suggestions  for  direct  action  in  individual 
families,  though  it  omits  many  items  with  which  the  Home  Ser¬ 
vice  Manual  and  other  Home  Service  publications  have  already 
made  you  familiar. 

There  is  time  to  no  more  than  mention  another  part  of  the 
social  program  which  falls  not  so  much  to  the  Home  Service 
Sections  as  to  other  agencies  in  the  social  field,  though  the  sym¬ 
pathy  and  understanding  of  Home  Service  are  going  to  be  most 

12 


valuable  aids  to  social  workers  in  helping  forward  these  reform 
measures.  Just  as  the  physical  and  mental  examiners  of  the 
army  and  navy  have  brought  to  light  certain  weaknesses  in  our 
country’s  social  program  on  the  health  side,  so  the  work  of  draft 
boards,  of  the  War  Risk  Insurance  Bureau,  and  of  the  Red  Cross 
is  bringing  to  light  weak  spots  in  the  marital  and  social  rela¬ 
tions  of  our  people.  Not  only  rational  law,  but  its  intelligent 
administration,  will  help  to  strengthen  family  life  where  it  is 
now  weakest.  This  is  no  plea  for  a  standpat  attitude  toward  the 
institution  of  the  family,  but  a  plea  instead  for  a  conservation 
of  those  human  values  which  the  family  at  its  best  can  best 
maintain.  Take,  for  example,  the  present  laws  regulating  mar¬ 
riage  in  the  different  states.  It  is  impossible  to  examine  these 
with  any  care  without  finding  gross  inconsistencies — inconsis¬ 
tencies  not  only  as  between  different  states,  but  inconsistencies 
in  the  laws  of  the  same  state.  This  is  especially  true  wherever 
common  law  marriage  is  still  recognized  as  valid.  We  social 
workers  are  coming  to  feel  that  not  only  should  the  marriage 
laws  of  this  country  be  studied  and  revised — revised  conserva¬ 
tively,  that  is,  in  the  light  of  our  daily  social  experience — but 
that  the  detailed  administration  of  these  laws  and  their  adapta¬ 
tion  to  varying  human  situations  should  be  worked  out  as  care¬ 
fully  as  we  are  now  working  out  the  administrative  details 
which  affect  industry.  The  clerk  who  issues  licenses  interprets 
the  marriage  laws.  How  does  he  interpret  them?  How  intelli¬ 
gently  are  marriage  records  kept?  How  large  a  proportion  of 
false  statements  do  they  record? 

Then  again,  we  have  known  theoretically  that  the  marriage  of 
the  mentally  unfit  must  be  prevented,  but  as  a  practical  measure 
this  reform  lags  far  behind  because  many  American  communities 
have  not  a  single  practitioner  competent  to  detect  a  mental 
defect  or  to  diagnose  it  properly.  Social  workers  must  create 
the  demand  which  will  increase  this  supply;  they  must  learn 
too  to  increase  the  supply  of  competent  practitioners  in  an  allied 
field  by  creating  the  demand  for  prompt  diagnosis  and  treatment 
of  all  those  controllable  nervous  and  physical  conditions  which 
are  most  dangerous  to  family  life.  This  side  of  the  family  pro¬ 
gram  would  emphasize,  therefore,  not  only  socialized  laws  and 
their  socialized  enforcement,  would  try  not  only  to  put  new  vigor 
into  the  present  attempts  to  control  and  segregate  the  mentally 

13 


defective,  but  would  also  seek,  by  studying  the  human  values  in 
real  families,  to  bring  about  those  delicate  adjustments  which 
would  tend  to  conserve  the  rights  of  the  individual.  In  the 
supremely  important  task  of  family  conservation,  few  processes 
are  more  important  than  those  which  assure  such  adjustments. 
In  all  these  tasks,  social  work  will  need  either  the  active  coope¬ 
ration  or  the  sympathetic  backing  of  Home  Service. 

Last  of  all,  if  I  have  seemed  at  any  point  to  dwell  upon  the 
dangers  and  difficulties  of  family  life  or  to  strike  a  minor  note, 
let  me  assure  you  in  closing  that  I  am  well  aware  also  of  the 
great  outstanding  fact  that  many,  many  homes  in  America — 
homes  saddened  by  war  and  by  absence — are  sound  to  the  core. 
War  is  applying  to  them  the  test  of  fire,  and  they  are  facing  the 
terrible  experience  of  our  day  in  a  spirit  of  faithfulness,  of  self- 
sacrifice  which  cannot  fail  to  store  up  for  them  in  the  future  a 
faith  assured,  a  treasury  of  memories  destined  to  enrich  family 
life  in  America  for  generations  to  come.  Thus  we  have  the  old 
paradox  of  the  wheat  and  the  tares  growing  together — a  mingled 
harvest,  but  a  harvest  infinitely  worth  our  service  and  our  pains. 

A  naval  officer  wrote  recently  from  the  cabin  of  an  American 
destroyer  in  the  war  zone  to  his  wife  at  home,  “  I  must  close  and 
get  a  bit  of  sleep.  It  seems  as  if,  when  it  is  all  over,  all  the 
heaven  I  want  is  to  be  with  you  and  son  again  perfectly  quiet.” 
God  grant  that  that  particular  heaven — the  heaven  of  a  relation 
carried  over  unbroken  and  unspoiled — awaits  multitudes  of  our 
brave  men  now  fighting  in  France  and  on  the  seas. 


14 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


3  0112  053559693 


